1. Field of the Invention
The field of the invention is restraining harnesses adapted to hold children in their highchairs which also provide easy removal of the child from the harness by the adult when desired.
2. Description of the Related Art
The obvious need to restrain children in their highchairs for their own safely has prompted a considerable amount of inventive activity over the last number of years resulting in many various types of restraining harnesses. Restraining the child in the highchair has been accomplished by a number of different ways, some confining the child in a harness and then connecting the harness to the highchair. Others confine the child to the highchairs by building a cage which blocks routes of possible escape.
For example, devices shown in United States Patents to Hinkle (U.S. Pat. No. 2,741,412), Ware (U.S. Pat. No. 2,413,395), and Roberts (U.S. Pat. No. 3,954,280) show devices which secures the body of the child and then is in turn secured to the highchair, or in the case of Roberts to an automobile seat.
Other devices such as those shown in the United States Patent to Picard (U.S. Pat. No. 2,414,698), Dimas (U.S. Pat. No. 4,324,430), Cook (U.S. Pat. No. 4,867,464), and McCracken (U.S. Pat. No. 3,713,692) illustrate devices which primarily attach to a highchair and then with straps emanating from the attachment, surround various parts of the child.
The problem with highchair type restraining harnesses known to the inventor is that the harnesses are each designed and adapted to restrain the child in a specialized type of highchair, or as in the case of the device of Dimas, a chair-like carrier.
Further, over the last number of years, the construction of highchairs appears to have evolved to more or less standard models with a substantial difference between the models as to how high the rear seat structural member is in height, varying from as little as five (5) inches to as high as seventeen (17) inches.
Accordingly, in many cases the prior art restraining harnesses are not suitable for use in presently available highchairs. As a consequence, there appears a great need for a restraining harness for children in highchairs which is universally adaptable to modern highchairs and which are safe and secure and resist efforts of the child to either unbuckle the harness or otherwise slip out of it.
In addition, it would be useful if such a harness were convertible to a child walker, i.e., where children are just starting to learn to walk with the harness being used by an adult to hold the child erect during its early walking time to prevent the child from falling over.